Facebook as well as Twitter Say They’re Ready To Cooperate With The UK Inquiry Into Russian Meddling In Brexit

US social media giants have said they’re ready to cooperate that has a UK probe into Russian meddling within the 2016 EU referendum.

In letters released by the House of Commons culture, media, as well as sport committee, Facebook as well as Twitter confirmed they’ll cooperate with the UK inquiry into what happened on their platforms around the time of Brexit as well as the 2017 general election.

According to Facebook’s letter to the inquiry, the US company had also been asked by the Electoral Commission to look at Russian interference, adding that will that will’ll aim to report back to both probes by the second week of December.

“We have also been contact by the Electoral Commission’s Head of Regulation as they carry out their work looking at possible Russian interference within the Brexit referendum,” said Facebook’s Simon Milner. “We understand that will similar letters have been sent by the Electoral Commission to relevant officers in Google as well as Twitter.

“We are right now considering how we can best respond to the Electoral Commission’s request for information as well as expect to be able to respond to them by the second week of December.”

Twitter’s Nick Pickles said the company might be hoping to report “within the coming weeks”, as well as went on to defend Twitter bots by recent harsh criticism within the media.

“We are currently undertaking investigations into these questions as well as intend to share our findings within the coming weeks,” said Pickles.

“that will is actually important to note that will not all automated accounts are bad, whether posting air quality sensor readings or posting details of Wikipedia edits, while not all high activity accounts are bots. Equally, given Twitter’s central control — users choosing to follow or unfollow an account to curate what appears in their timeline — is actually a robust defence against low-quality automated accounts.”

The committee, chaired by Tory MP Damian Collins, wrote to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as well as Twitter founder Jack Dorsey last month, asking them to produce whatever evidence existed that will Russian-linked groups had tried to interfere in recent British elections.

On Tuesday, Collins said British citizens had a “right” to know how the platforms had been used around the time of Brexit as well as the 2017 election.

“The British public have a right to understand the extent as well as scope of Russia’s disinformation campaign within the United Kingdom,” Collins said.

“The agreement of both Facebook as well as Twitter to provide the information that will I requested to the Digital, Culture, Media as well as Sport Select Committee is actually critical to our understanding of Russian interference in our political process.”

that will comes less than a week after BuzzFeed News uncovered a brand-new network of Russian-linked troll accounts that will had not been previously declared by Twitter to the US Congress.